Nicolas Louis Robert was born in 1761, in Paris. A frail child born to older parents, he attended a school with a strong focus on science and mathematics. Robert first tried to enlist at the age of 15 to ease the burden on his parents, but was rejected. Four years later he was accepted and joined the First Battalion of the Grenoble Artillery, transferring in 1781 to the Metz Artillery regiment where he rose to the rank of Sergeant Major.

He married Charlotte Routier in 1794, by which time he had been indentured for four years as a clerk, in one of the Didot family’s publishing houses. He later switched to ‘inspector of personnel’ at the Didot paperworks at Essones. It was a well-respected mill, supplying paper to the Ministry of Finance for use in the production of French Assignats, the currency of the time. This was the time of the French Revolution and it is believed that the constant problems amongst the paper workers, of the Handmade Papermakers Guild, drove Robert to find a mechanical solution to paper production.

Robert’s early attempts at mechanisation were regarded as ‘feeble’ by Leger Didot and after the failure of the second design, Robert moved on to be superintendent of grain grinding at a nearby flour mill. After a few months, Didot persuaded him to reprise the project and the subsequent promising design was then scaled up. This 24″ wide machine produced 2 damp but well-formed sheets of paper. With a national award from the French government of 3000 francs, Robert was able to file for a patent on 19th January 1799. The remaining money was insufficient to develop the project and the shrewd Didot offered to purchase the patent. Payment was to be by instalment but after the initial sum, no further monies were forthcoming. Robert filed an injunction and the court decided in his favour. He was sole owner of both the patent and the machine but had to repay Didot’s expenses. To end the stalemate a further court sitting agreed a payment of 27,000 francs for the transfer of all patent drawings to Didot and the promise of a new machine to be produced by Robert, which was to be paid for in instalments by Didot. Robert fulfilled his part, Didot did not. The patent drawing and paper samples were on their way to England with Didot’s brother-in-law, John Gamble.

Having lost the patent and control of his invention, Nicolas-Louis Robert moved to Vernouillet where he became a teacher in a school he set up. The pay was poor due to the after-effects of the war, so he remained a teacher until his death on 8th August 1828.

Curiously, there seem to have been two men with the same name, Nicolas-Louis Robert 1761-1828 and a man of the same name 1760-1820. Both French, both inventors, both alive in corresponding years, but two very separate individuals. The firstborn Nicolas Louis Robert and his brother, together with Jacques Charles, invented the first passenger-less hydrogen balloon in 1783.

Please note: Variations of Robert’s name can be found in different sources. The Apsley Paper Trail has investigated this matter with the French authorities and it is correctly Nicolas-Louis Robert.

…and the world’s first paper-making machine.

The original concept of a continuous papermaking machine was the invention of a Frenchman, Nicolas-Louis Robert. He worked at a paper mill near Paris and whilst there, developed his ideas for making a continuous sheet of paper by mechanical means. A French patent was registered by Robert in 1799 but he subsequently sold the patent and a model of his machine to his employer, Leger Didot.

Didot did not find conditions in revolutionary France suitable for the development of the patent and he turned to England for help. He was related by marriage to an Englishman, John Gamble, who was at that time in Paris acting for the British government in prisoner of war exchanges. Gamble returned to England, registered the patent in London and was later joined by Didot with Robert’s model machine, during a gap in hostilities.

In London they obtained the financial support of Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier, brothers who were wholesale stationers of some substance. The Fourdriniers commissioned Bryan Donkin to develop Robert’s model and the world’s very first continuous paper-making machine was installed at Frogmore Mill in 1803. A second, much improved and larger machine was also installed at Frogmore the following year, followed by a third machine at Two Waters Mill, a few hundred yards upstream, in 1805.

Nevertheless the technical developments in these early years proved to be a success and the continuous paper-making machine quickly spread throughout Britain and subsequently the world. A Parliamentary Select committee in 1837 acknowledged the importance of the Fourdriniers’ contribution to the paper industry and at least their name lives on in that the vast majority of the paper machines now in use throughout the world are still known as ‘Fourdrinier’ machines.

So how did an idea developed in France by Nicolas-Louis Robert become the first paper machine in Hertfordshire, England?

Ledger Didot having acquired the French patent of the Nicolas-Louis Robert machine, realised it could not be progressed in France. As England was the pioneer of the Industrial Revolution and far advanced in a burgeoning world of invention, mechanics and steam. Also England and France were at war. As a Frenchman, Didot could not get an English patent or travel across the Channel, but his brother-in-law, John Gamble could.

Gamble worked for Captain James Coates of the Royal Navy who was the British Commissioner for the exchange of prisoners of war. Gamble could travel freely and in return for a portion of future profits, agreed to transport the drawings and paper samples to England. On the English side of the Channel, the plans were translated and converted into feet and inches. This formed the first English patent (no.2487) registered by John Gamble in 1801.

John Gamble required financial backing to exploit the concept and found it in the two senior partners of the Company of Bloxham and Fourdrinier; Brothers Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier, established Huguenot stationers in London. He then transported the Robert model to England to aid development. Exactly how he conveyed a model of 2 metres length, is unknown. It was transported to the engineering works of John Hall of Dartford, millwrights and engineers to the Fourdriniers, where work commenced on improving the concept. Didot was able to slip across The Channel during a gap in hostilities for the signing of the Treaty of Amiens.

Gamble and Didot supervised the work, but with no progress. Bryan Donkin, (apprenticed to John Hall in 1792) had impressed with his quiet, measured and skilful approach. He took over the project in 1802 and instantly the invention moved forward. With further investment from the Fourdriniers, a new works was constructed at Bermondsey, where Donkin was able to implement all of his ideas for improvement. The result was regarded as, “the first practical machine for making paper in history” and for which Gamble acquired patent no.2708 in April 1803.Encouraged, the Fourdriniers purchased an existing paper mill to test the machine in action. The first mechanised paper machine in the world had now been installed at Frogmore Paper Mill in 1803.

Donkin was now able to make further improvements based upon paper production observations. The process was at times fraught as Didot pressed for the inclusion of his own ideas which were typically unsuccessful.

Robert’s machine had been made from wood. Gradually Donkin had changed much of it for metal which improved precision. The new metal structure was highly satisfactory for providing stability and control of the shake, necessary for the formation of the wet paper on the wire. Fine adjustments were made possible in order that the machine could be adapted to the type of paper being made. Deckle straps running close to the wire were added to alter the width of paper that could be made on the one machine. A second variant was installed at Frogmore in 1804 which was 27ft x 4ft and a third in 1805 at Two Waters Mill, which was also owned by the Fourdriniers.

The two men lodged at Two Waters at The Bell on London Road. And it was here that Donkin had his eureka moment. His biggest advance was with the couch rolls. By putting the two couch rolls at an angle, Donkin could increase the area of contact between roller and paper, allowing increased water to be expressed and the resultant paper was both drier and stronger as a result. The top wire could be disposed of and this decreased the number of breaks in the forming paper. This was a significant step forward. It enabled the production of longer lengths of paper and reduced the number of workers per machine from four to three. Plus, he could sell machines for a reduced rate.

Mill owners were recognising the advantages of the machine over handmade paper. Between 1807 and 1810 Donkin sold thirteen machines of up to 33 feet long.

By 1809, the Fourdriniers had overstretched themselves and were not receiving payments for machines that they were due. In 1810 they were declared bankrupt. They offered the Bermondsey works for rent (1809) to Donkin and then to purchase in 1811. Bryan Donkin and Company, Engineering at Blue Anchor Lane was established.

Quite apart from Donkin’s contribution to the mechanisation of paper production, which to this day bears the name of its financiers and is known as the Fourdrinier conveyor paper machine, rather than the name of its hard working developer, Donkin went on to develop a diverse range of items from steel pens, to the tin can for food preservation and machines for printing.

Donkin also made his mark on the related industry of printing. He was a letterpress printing pioneer who invented, in conjunction with Richard Mackenzie Bacon of Norwich, the first rotary printing press in 1813. It also had the first synthetic roller and the first ink duct in the patent. The invention was not greatly successful as it tended to mark the paper when it was used to print Bibles, for which it was intended but was used used for a number of years at the Cambridge University Press. The machine appears in most 19^th century pictorial encyclopaedias.

Nevertheless the technical developments in these early years proved to be a success and the continuous paper-making machine quickly spread throughout Britain and subsequently the world. A Parliamentary Select committee in 1837 acknowledged the importance of the Fourdriniers’ contribution to the paper industry and at least their name lives on in that the vast majority of the paper machines now in use throughout the world are still known as ‘Fourdrinier’ machines.

For further reading on the life and works of Bryan Donkin, please see https://bryandonkin.wordpress.com/bryan-donkin/

John Evans was the son of a clergyman schoolmaster who was all set for an academic career and about to enter Brasenose College when he was abruptly sent to work for his uncle John Dickinson, who promptly put him out to lodgings. He soon proved capable for everything he was asked to undertake. Having thoroughly learned the business he developed some of the earliest machines for making envelopes which had previously been hand folded. Like Dickinson he too held a number of papermaking related patents. Evans continued his uncle’s expansion policy and the Company continued to thrive. He married Dickinson’s daughter Harriett with whom he had five children, Harriett dying of an infection a few days after the last birth.

Taxation and the shortage of rags for raw material was a severe handicap to all manufacturers and he was instrumental in forming a manufacturer’s federation to deal collectively with the government. Evans helped Routledge finance a factory in Sunderland for converting Esparto grass from the Mediterranean region into a pulp from which paper could be made as an alternative to cloth thereby putting the whole industry on a new footing and leading to the use of wood pulp once the problems of effluent and pollution had been solved. Following the conversion of the Company into a Limited company he retired in 1885 but continued to live at Nash House within the mill grounds as a tenant until 1906.

Outside his business life he followed his hobbies of archeology, coin collecting (numismatics) and of geology. This was to lead to his publication of three books still considered as standard works today – Flint Impliments of the Drift (1861), The Ancient Stone Implements Weapons and Ornaments of Great Britain (1872) and The Ancient Bronze Implements Weapons and Ornaments of Great Britain and Ireland (1881) – all written while he was still Managing Director and very active in the company’s work.

A man of immense talent and of charming disposition he loved a ball and would dance the night away. He was Secretary, Treasurer or President of nearly all of the learned societies, (Geological, Geographical, Royal Society, Anthropological Institute, Society of Antiquaries, Egypt Exploration society and of the Society of Civil Engineers) but it was the Numismatic Society (now The Royal Numismatic Society) which was his principal interest. He first joined in 1847, acted as Secretary from 1854 to 1874 after which he was President until his death in May 1908. A Commemorative bronze medallion with the bust of John Evans was cast by the society in 1887 by the Numismatic Society in recognition of his outstanding work for them.

John Evans was made KCB in the Birthday Honours list of 1892.

Sir John Evans had made a vast collections of coins, and ancient objects of stone and metal most of which he gave to his son Arthur or bequeathed to the Ashmolean Museum. Visitors to the museum today will see many objects in cases stating that the donor was J Evans and there is also a gallery there named after him and another after his son Arthur. His wealth as a successful papermaker had allowed the collection of a unique assemblage of prize specimens. However his interests were not entirely academic for he was also very active in local affairs being a churchwarden of two local churches in turn. As a Justice of the Peace he was closely involved in the formation of Hertfordshire County Council being its second Chairman for two years in 1901.

His son Lewis, continued in the running of the Dickinson business and his daughter, Joan wrote the history of the company The Endless Web. The eldest son, Arthur, did not enter the business but established himself as a leading archaeologist.

Sir Arthur Evans, FSA 1851 – 1941

He was the eldest son of Sir John Evans but was not prepared to enter the business instead pursuing a remarkable career as an archaeologist. Arthur became Curator of The Ashmolean Museum following a period of imprisonment in the Balkans for insurrection. As Curator he converted the hotch-potch collection of curios into a splendid seat of learning. Arthur found the money to create the new building in which the museum resides today.

He discovered the palace of King Minos at Knossos on the island of Crete and proceeded to excavate it, and subsequently re-construct it using money largely given by his father. In due course he benefited hugely from his father’s estate and within months also from the residue of John Dickinson’s estate so that it can fairly be said that the profits of papermaking were spent by him on this work.

He was knighted in 1911, in recognition of his life’s work as his father had before him but in a different field.